Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Wednesday Is Senior Discount Day

We woke up early this morning with plans of cramming a lot in.

By 8am we were hurrying through Krogers Grocery Store shuffling coupons and looking for free samples. It wasn’t very crowded. I asked the cashier where were all the customers. She told me they were playing Bingo. She said Wednesday mornings they have Bingo for seniors. By 8:30 we had got; our 5% Senior Discount and out of there. Who care about Bingo?

We carried my truck to the dealer to have service.

While the truck was being serviced we went to a movie at the Town Center AMC Theater to see ANGELS AND DEMONS, directed by Ron Howard, starring Tom Hanks and written by Dan Brown.

It was very good. Some people think ANGELS AND DEMONS and THE DIVINCI CODE both are sacra religious but I don’t think so. It more or less asks questions of symbols that have been accepted as divine messages from God. I am now reading another Dan Brown novel DECEPTION POINT and all three has something in common. They are all super chase stories that challenge authority and there is a matter of urgency that is about 24 hours or less that if failed, might end the world as we know it… how’s that for urgency?

We have an AMC card and sometimes get little door prizes for using it. Today we got one ticket to a future movie and two bags of popcorn…. Not bad.

The parking lot was full. This was at 10:30 am, which I think is very unusual for a weekday. I ask the guy who waited on us at the concession stand why the parking lot was so full he said this is the first day of TRANSFORMERS. Then he backed up and said, “Well actually, it was last night at midnight.”

I thought, “Today or last night at midnight – I’ll take either answer.”

However the theater we went in had only five people, including us. Of course we were the first ones there. After us was a couple that seemed to be struggling with crutches or walkers. Then an elderly lady was the last.

The movie was very fast pace.. you could hear the music like a nervous heart thumping but it was also very visual. At one point, the sky lit up like the wrath of God. It kept us on the edge of our seats.

After the movie was over we were watching the credits like we sometimes do and I heard the metal walking sticks or walker make their racket slowly making their way down the steps.

When they got even with us I saw they were blind with feeler sticks. That is why they were slow, they were on steps, and didn’t want to step into nothing. They felt their way to the bottom and around the left edge and tried to go out. They couldn’t. Then they felt their way around front to they came to the next front corner and tried to go out. No exit there either. Then they felt their way forward on the other side and found their way out.

Why were they sitting in a movie?

The old lady came down from behind us. Somehow we started talking about the blind couple and wondered why a blind couple would go to the movies. And then as we talked we walked out and were somewhat surprised that her hair was colored red, blue, and purple. She looked five or ten years older than us.

We stopped at the restrooms. I went into the men’s restroom and there was the blind man washing his hands. I wonder how he found the men’s restroom? And then, how did he find the urinal? And was he a good shot?

As I went around the corner to pee and he was in the front part washing his hands I remembered hearing that when someone loses their eyesight their other senses are more sensitive. Did he hear us commenting about he and his blind female partner in a movie theater… being blind…and commenting about them feeling their way out? And, did he recognize my “smell”? My dog can, surely a blind man kind. I halfway expected him to suddenly appear behind me and start whacking me with his metal cane.

But then I heard the cane making clicks like it was leaving the area.

Later we saw both of them and their walking sticks feeling their way towards the exit door.

We wondered what they used for transportation to and from the theater.

We had a late lunch at Slopes BBQ. They give senior discounts too! I think I put too much hot sauce on mine. My nose ran, it always does when I put too much hot stuff on my barbecue.